The yin and yang of collaborating with others is among the great pleasures of my work as DirectorCurator at artCentral.

Writing and filing my weekly Art Notes column—this is my one hundred and fourth—I get to collaborate with The Carthage Press staff writer—the dedicated and terrifically talented Rebecca Haines.

Collaborating brings me pleasing delights again and again with my fiancé, soon-to-be-husband, David Matthews, in our unfolding relationship and shared life as artists and at artCentral. Every day with unrestrained rapport we creatively inspire, support and encourage each other. Over and over again we say to each other, “Lucky us. We are blessed.” We are!

Making our new reality together, we’re expanding our satisfying, collaborative working relationship. When David suggests I might offer a correction with regard to my two most recent columns because he believes my readership thinks he wrote the text for “The Stone” and “Under the Rafters,” at first I respond to his suggestion, “No matter. I write for joy, not for credit.” True, and yet taking credit for words written from my heart seems right. So, “yes”, I wrote “The Stone” and “Under the Rafters”, and David illustrated both pieces with complementary panache.

Ours is a lovely yin and yang collaboration—I write and David illustrates. A few of you have suggested we collaborate on a book about our love story and how artCentral has brought us together in Carthage. This book is on our “to do” list along with “move to our new home in Carthage, get settled, hang our art, plan our intimate “destination” wedding and our big you-are-all-invited-celebration at artCentral with no wedding presents please, though we’ll be delighted to receive your gifts to artCentral to help us support the work we love for art and artists.

Collaborating for the love of art and artists is the theme that harmoniously binds artCentral’s Board of Directors in our work throughout each year. Pleasure is abundantly mine working with Jackie Boyer, president; Brenda Sageng, vice-president; Betsy Flanigan, secretary; Pat Goff, treasurer; and board members Lonnie Heckmaster, Helen Kunze, Lee Pound, Jane Van Den Berg and Gail White.

​Recently gathered for our annual luncheon around our festive holiday table in the chandeliered gallery at historic Hyde House, members of the board and our guests Sandy Higgins and Sally Armstrong, former directors, and advisor Jerry Ellis, each in turn mentioned a favorite gift artCentral gives as our community’s beautiful non-profit arts organization including the painting of the Great Wall, artCamp and the variety of exhibitions we host throughout each year. Certainly knowing and celebrating our annual parade of art and artists makes the yin and yang of collaborating a joy for us each and all.